The German music rights holders association GEMA has expanded its fight against one click hosters like Megaupload and Rapidshare by targeting a new breed of intermediaries: File spreading engines, also called spreaders, are websites that make it possible to upload a file on multiple sites at the same time.

GEMA was able to force Shareonall.com to shut down this weekend, and is now targeting Hubupload.com and Datennschleuder.cc. It also took Xirror.com to court in June and was able to get a preliminary injunction against the site which is now offline as well. GEMA celebrated the shut-down of the site as a proof that it is taking "forceful actions" against file spreading engines.

There are some inconsistencies to the GEMA story though. The Xirror.com owners have told the German IT news webiste heise.de that they decided to shut down the site in mid-June for a variety of reasons, with problems to monetize the bandwidth-intensive service being one of them. GEMA was only able to secure the injunction two days after the shut-down, according to Xirror.